"You sure you want to me to invite them?"
Velvet swivels in her chair to look at Phi. He sits cross-legged on the faux leather loveseat next to the den's door. With his elbows propped on his thighs, he holds a Rubix's Cube up in front of his face. It clicks with each rotation of its every row and column.
"Yes, definitely!" he says without looking away from the Rubix's Cube. Swivelling back to face her computer monitor, Velvet picks up a two month-old elementary school assignment sheet. Double-checks the names scrawled in neat handwriting on its otherwise blank backside. Velvet sighs. Then she begins to type address after address into the to field. It will be easier just to send this as one group email.
"Dyle too?" she says under her breathe as she inputs his work address. A part of her considers omitting a few names from the list. When it comes to wrangling children, she does not think Detectives Dyle or Benwick would be of much help. She has seen firsthand how Kamoana bulldozes over their so-called rules.
Her assistant, Magilou, would be even worse. It is more likely that Magilou would encourage the kids to misbehave than do anything actually helpful.
Even still, it is Phi's birthday party.
She leaves the addresses as is. Perhaps some of them will already have plans made for this coming Saturday.
With the to field filled, Velvet switches to the subject line. Birthday Party would be too eye-catching. Putting Phi's name anywhere in the subject line is out too. A topic like that would have everyone opening the email. She really only needs one or two other adults to help corral all the kids. For a moment, Velvet wonders if she should copy-and-paste the body of the email at the bottom of their monthly newsletter. Hardly anyone reads that.
Velvet has to remind herself again that it is Phi's birthday. He wants everyone on this list to be there.
Gritting her teeth, she types Laphicet's Birthday Party into the subject line and eyeballs it for about a good minute. Then she mashes the backspace button and types Invitation instead. It is nondescript enough that someone might assume it is an invite to a refresher seminar on police codes. Her eyes scan over the email's body. That she had written first. No mistakes catch her eyes.
"So, how many kids are coming?" she asks as she hits send.
"Kids? Oh, well, three, not including me," he says.
"What?"
"I invited Videl, Kamoana— I sent Edna an email, too. I really hope she can make it! She said that she'd try."
"Three?" Velvet asks. Stares at her email's inbox. A notification hovers above the list of emails: Your message has successfully been sent!
"Yeah," Phi says from behind her. The Rubix Cube's clicks twice more before falling silent. "Velvet, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." After a long pause, she adds, "We have room for a couple more people, if you wanted to invite anyone else."
"That's okay," Phi says. The clicking sounds resume.
Stunned, it takes Velvet a few seconds before she can feel her hands again. Then she clicks on the sent email. Reads each address one by one. A part of her wonders if she should be concerned that Phi has only invited one friend from his new school. Phi met Edna through Eizen. Met Kamoana through Medissa. In fact, everyone but Videl is in some way involved with the Nine Nine. Maybe that is not a good thing.
The only thing she knows for sure is that this party is going to be a disaster.